Namaste everybody! I’m delighted that you are joining me today at Namaste Nutritionist, as we drop love nuggets and wisdom bombs. The health wizards that I interview help crack open insider secrets for creating a strong and lean body, a brilliant mind, and a thriving spirit. I want to thank you so much for joining in today. Our goal here is to help everyone, you, me, your family, friends, and even your pet goldfish, brighten health and enliven spirits everyday.
And for those of you who don’t know me yet, I am Frances, the creator of Namaste Nutritionist. I am a registered dietitian and a long-time yoga instructor. Of course, I wouldn’t be doing this without the support of my super-supportive, groovy husband, Michael. And you can find us both at namastenutritionist.com.
Today’s interview is with Laurie Erdman, a true energy superhero. Laurie will share her story with us in how her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis catapulted her journey to living a thriving life, where she is now healthier and more energetic. We’ll take about radical self=care, sugar addiction, simple tweaks to recharge energy and some other goodies. Laurie will share with us ways to combat chronic inflammation, make exercise fun, and manage holiday stress. We’ll cover all of this in under an hour, so buckle up and join us on the ride. Let’s jump in to Laurie’s bio. Laurie Erdman is a speaker, writer, coach, and founder of Chronic Wellness Coaching, and she has a singular mission of rescuing working women from burnout and fatigue. She is a recovering lawyer and corporate vice-president who left her successful career to pursue her passion, which is training superheroes, those gals who are sick and tired of being sick and tired. She is a certified holistic health coach, raw food chef, and life-long personal growth junkie. Laurie plays at the intersection of nutritional counseling and life coaching to transform fatigue into fabulous. You can learn more about the range of programs Laurie offers such as her self-study programs and private coaching, which are designed to help you get more energy, at chronicwellnesscoaching.com. Let’s jump right in!
Francis: Hi Laurie! Thanks so much for joining us today! How are you?
Laurie: I’m good, thank you for having me, I’m real excited to be here today!
F: And I think our listeners are going to be real excited too, a lot of them have already been asking questions about our interview, because you have quite a remarkable story. So let’s just get started with a background and all about you. Maybe give me a two-minute version of you.
L: Sure. So, well, two minutes, so let me see, well let me just start with that I’m a former lawyer, and so, I was in private practice and then I went in to corporate practice, and so, I was, you know, working really long hours, and had become really to the point where I was living off sugar and caffeine, so I was fatigued, but I didn’t know it because I was masking the issue a lot, and I also was at the point, this was about three years ago, where I was really unhappy with my job, I was, you know, looking for things to provide, you know, satisfaction, meaning, in, you know, not great ways, you know, having, you know, I went and bought an expensive car, and it was just sort of, you know, almost sort of like this mid-life crisis kind of thing. But, what ended up happening is I got this wake-up call. And that was three years ago, December 23, 2009, when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And as I left the doctor’s office that day, you know, Merry Christmas, I really knew, you know, my doctor told me something really interesting, you know, she just said, you know, “If your one of those people that ends up working all these long hours, you know, working 60 hours, 80 hours a week, and thinking that your going to, you know, go off and then travel the world, retire at 80 and travel the world, or even, you know, retire at 60,” she’s like, “you might want to rethink that.” So, which was probably the best thing she told me during that session, because basically everything else she told me was, oh I’m going to be on drugs for the rest of my life, and there are injections, and I’ve got to give myself a shot everyday. So the prognosis in that respect was not really great, and so, but I did take her advice to heart, about, okay, maybe I need to change something, and so, I looked at my life, and I had always had an interest in nutrition, so I pulled all of my old nutrition books off the shelf, and I started basically created a, you know, “Let’s Reclaim Laurie” program, and it started with diet, I’ve made pretty massive changes to my diet, and I also, you know, just started changing the way I related to work, I stopped setting my alarm clock, I was like, you know, I’ll get there when I get there, and I made the morning the priority was me, you know, getting enough sleep, getting exercise, eating a good breakfast, all the stuff that, you know, we all know that we’re supposed to do, but never really do because we’re too busy, so I really started to take that to heart, and, you know, it was, and just kept adding things as I needed to, and was able to reclaim my body and reclaim my life. And the result was that I am now symptom and relapse free from MS, so I’m pretty proud and happy of that, but I also from a more outward perspective, I lost a ton of weight, I kind of reversed the aging process, so I look a lot younger than I did three years ago, and of course, that stuff didn’t go unnoticed and when I, you know, in the office I was working in, and I had a lot of people just ask me, like, “ Oh my gosh, what are you doing? I want to do what you’re doing.” And you know, it was kind of like that When Harry Met Sally moment, it’s like, “I’ll have what you’re having.” And so I realized at that point, it’s like, “okay, I might have tripped upon some secrets here, and stuff that I can help others that are really in the same situation,” not just the same situation of being diagnosed with, you know, an incurable disease, but, you know, I say being diagnosed with an incurable career. And, you know, it’s just, because, yeah, I felt stuck, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and be when I grew up, and all of a sudden, I had this thing fall in my lap, and it really opened up my eyes, and opened up a lot of doors, and so I went back, I got a coaching certification, and you know, pretty much been unstoppable from there. I’ve been, I do private coaching, I’ve been featured on Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Life, I’m a regular blogger for Dr. Lissa Rankin’s Owning Pink, I’m real excited, I just got featured in a spread for the Modern Woman magazine, which is a USA Today publication, it was, they did a spread of five women, who had kind of defied, reversed the aging process, so I got this great spread there, and just, you know, kind of trying to get my message out to as many people as possible, that message being we all have the power to take back our own life, no matter how trapped or fatigued or, you know, whatever that we feel.
F: So you talked about sugar and, I want to touch on that because that’s such a big area and I think some people really struggle, like I know I’m one of them, with getting the sugar addiction down, and when you cheat just a little too much, all of a sudden, you’re spiraled out of control. So just for motivation, can you tell us how sugar impacts fatigue and stress and your wellbeing.
L: Yeah, and I’ve got, I won’t go through my whole personal life with sugar, but I have, boy, it goes back to, you know, and most of us do have a relationship with sugar, I mean, that’s the one thing I think people need to understand when we’re trying to get off sugar, there’s two issues with sugar cravings, there’s a physical addiction and then there’s an emotional addiction, and a lot of, you know, people like, “Oh well I can just, you know, will power, and will my way out of it.” And that works for a while, but, yeah, it’s kind of like, you almost have to be all or nothing at that point, and the thing with sugar and it’s relationship with fatigue is that it really, when we eat, you know, when we consume sugar, it does give us energy, which of course, is part of the physical craving. Like if we’re going, if there’s something else going in on in our lives where we’re not getting enough sleep and so we’re tired, sugar is a natural thing to reach for because it give us energy, but the problem is that it does that by boosting our sugar levels, our pancreas then comes into action, starts pumping insulin into our system to regulate and bring things back to a balance, and what happens is then you end up crashing on the other side of that spike, and that’s where, and i call it like the flat-forehead syndrome, where at, you know, 2 o’clock in the afternoon, you’re just like, forehead on the, you know, on your desk, going I can’t, you know, I can’t concentrate because you’re now in that insulin flood, where you’re just, you’re exhausted, and, because your body’s had to like, kind of, basically go overboard to address the sugar craving, or you know, the sugar binge, and so you end up, you know, it’s this crash and burn effect. And then what I find that’s interesting that happens is that it becomes this cycle because you go through this period, particularly in the afternoon, where you end up being essentially, how do I say this, you’re, because you’ve been in this fog because you’ve crashed, so you’re not getting things done, right, and you’re, you know, the classic example is you’re sitting there reading your computer screen and you’ve read the same paragraph for three times, and you’re going, “I still don’t know what I just read” and so then you’re going, “Oh my god, I just lost an hour” and now your stressed, and your like, “Well, the thing that’s going to make my stress feel better, is I’m going to go reach for sugar.” So, it becomes this cycle, and it just starts feeding the stress and the fatigue, and the stress and fatigue, so it’s this big circle. Does that make sense?
F: Absolutely, so then what happens is you’re actually increasing the stress and fatigue in your system.
L: Exactly. Exactly. And there is this whole biochemical reaction to the, you know, for some people, it’s, it can create a lot of anxiety because it’s, you know, if you’re kind of prone to anxiety, raising your blood sugar up, you know, it’s going to, just, it’s giving your body more energy to kind of fuel into that anxiety, particularly if you’re already anxiety-prone. So, it really just kind of almost enhances whatever is kind of going on with you emotionally anyway.
F: Wow. Okay, wow, well, well said. And it’s important to realize that there’s the physical and emotional component with sugar. And so, do you have any tips for us on how we can work on cutting back our sugar and gaining control again over that addictive cycle?
L: Yeah, it’s, so, like I run a sugar detox, one of my programs is Super Sugar Shakedown, and what we do there is, like any cleanse or detox program, there’s kind of a weaning off period, and but ultimately in the middle of that program, what I have people do is we just go completely off anything that’s sweet, and the interesting thing is we regenerate cells in our body all the time, and certain, you know cells regenerate, you know, certain different time frames, but the cells on our taste buds actually regenerate every three or four days, and so if we can actually overcome that period with no sweetener, and I mean like, you know, no fruit, no nothing that is sweet, then you’re actually able to break the physical cycle of sugar, so that’s the one thing, is, you know, I don’t actually recommend going cold turkey, I recommend taking some period of time to slowly wean off of it, but then actually taking a full break, so you can allow your taste buds to regenerate and not be craving the sugar. And then the other aspect is not ignoring the emotional, I think that’s really important, is not to avoid the emotional piece, but to actually embrace that and learn how to nourish yourself with something other than sugar.
F: Gotcha.
L: I think that’s the big key, and think that’s what often gets overlooked is that emotional piece, and recognizing that, you know, what are you using sugar for? You know, I’ve got some exercises in my program, where it’s like you’re really asking people, okay, where are you using sugar, how are you using sugar, so you can learn actually how to address it, and solve, you know, sugar solves problems for us, so it’s a question of finding healthier ways to solve that problem.
F: And so what are a couple of examples that you suggest to folks for satisfying themselves emotionally in ways that doesn’t include sugar.
L: Well, one of them is to, a way to breathe, you know, when we are sitting in a desk all day, kind of hunched over, we can’t actually fill our lungs up to as much capacity as they’re capable of, which means we’re not getting as much oxygen as our body needs, so, when you’re kind of depriving yourself of that oxygen, then you, it leads to feeling, you know, anxious and stressed, and so, that is just a way to nourish yourself, is actually to, you know, do breathing exercises, it makes you just feel more complete, more energized, more alert, so that really helps. The other thing, and what I always suggest that people do, is to create what I refer to as a “Nourishment Menu”, because everybody’s list is going to be different, and it really is sitting down and saying, “Okay, what things make me feel good,” and my caveat is that it shouldn’t involve eating food, and that it shouldn’t really involve spending money because and I say that last one, because we shouldn’t have a reason not to do it. Like, you know, I’m sure, you know, spending a month in Tahiti would probably make most people feel pretty relaxed and nourished, but if that’s not financially feasible, then that shouldn’t be on your nourishment menu. So it should be stuff that’s financially feasible, and so, maybe it’s a massage, but maybe it’s taking a walk in the park, or getting up and stretching, or, going and, you know, cuddling with your dog, or, you know, whatever that may be that nourishes you, and having really kind of a pick list, so things that would be, that are doable at any particular time, so you can reach for that thing as opposed to the candy bar.
F: Wow, I really like that because then it’s more achievable. You’r not setting the bar so high that you feel like, “well, I can’t reach those other non-sugar alternatives,” so that’s smart.
L: Yeah.
F: So there are several factors that play into fatigue, and so of them, you know, being toxins, adrenal exhaustion, a poor diet, stress, on and on, yeah, and so, what are some things that you would say about these other factors that play into fatigue, and do you have any tweaks that you recommend people add, or even take away to help boost their energy?
L: Yeah, it’s, you know, it can get overwhelming, there’s no doubt, because there is so much that contributes to it, and, you know, really, and I think there’s a little bit of all of these that exist for every single person, particularly in modern society, so my thing is not to get overwhelmed, because I think that just adds, that overwhelm and stress just adds to the fatigue. So starting slowly, figuring out, like, where you want to start, like, do you want to start by detoxing your home, do you want to start by upgrading, you know, upgrading your diet, you know, where do you want to start? And then slowly focusing on that and not going all in, but really, just like, okay, today I’m eating completely differently, but actually taking step by step and adding more nourishing food, food that’s going to give you more energy. And so, you know, for instance, one of my, you know, one of my favorite things is to have people start by actually having people start their day with lemon water, because that’s really alkalizing, and alkalizing is important because it’s really, it’s essentially, you’re giving your body oxygen, you’re kind of opening up your system and allowing more oxygen and also that alkalizing effect that lemon water has really is a nice flush because overnight we’ve been, you know, our body’s been going through and cleaning out all the bad stuff, but it needs a little extra push to make sure it all goes back, you know, goes out as opposed to, you know, sticking around, and so the lemon water actually helps do that.
F: And I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, of our call, is that’s what I love to do in the morning, I drink warm lemon water, so you know, I’ve added a little bit of hot water to my room temperature water and then add some lemon, and I drink a liter of it, or almost a liter, first thing in the morning, and it just, I feel like it just gets me started on such a good foot, it gives me energy, it brightens my mind, so, I’m happy to hear your endorsement of using lemon water first thing in the morning.
L: Yeah, yeah. It’s actually been something that’s been used really for like, centuries, and we’ve just, modern society has just gotten away from it. So, yeah, it’s really a great job, and it’s something that everybody could do, like it’s super simple, like, while you’re sitting there, you know, if you’re a coffee drinker, while, you know, your coffee is brewing, just, you know, cut a lemon in half, and squeeze it in a glass, fill it with water, and drink while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew.
F: That’s excellent, that’s excellent. And do you ever work with people on adrenal exhaustion?
L: I do, it’s definitely one of my specialities. Because, you know, I, yeah, and so I do, and it’s really that it is a long-term process, like I just had a new client, she’s like “Okay, can you just tell me how long this going to be?” I’m like, oh, I wish I, you know, I wish I had a good answer for you, because I know we always want, you know, we want things that are quick, and I’m like, it’s going to take a while, because it’s really about rebuilding the adrenal glands, and, you know, getting them to work like they’re supposed to, because that’s typically, when you’re in adrenal exhaustion, your adrenals are just not operating properly. So, I, yeah I definitely work on that and part of it is certainly a whole foods diet is really important, there are certain foods that we can add that help rebuild the adrenals, and when things are severe, I actually, at least for a thirty or sixty day period, depending on how bad the adrenal fatigue is, that I will have people do some supplementation support as well.
F: And with adrenal exhaustion, do you, what do you think about caffeine?
L: It’s a double-edged sword because people who are in that situation are like, “I can’t live without my caffeine” but usually when people who, it’s, you know, we can go get tests, blood tests, you know, saliva tests, but the reality is, if someone is saying “I can’t live without my caffeine” that’s typically an indication that there’s adrenal fatigue or exhaustion going on. And what I’ll typically do is I will start people just like, okay, I’m not going to pull away coffee from you because you’re going to hate me and everyone around you is going to hate you, so that’s just not a good situation, so let’s be realistic, and I am all about what to put in before we ever talk about what to pull out, and so, for me, I start to get people to start eating better, and you know, if they have to have their cup of coffee in order to have the energy to make their breakfast, I would have rather had them do that than not have had breakfast at all. So, you know, and then we’ll work on, because their body has to get to the point where it’s creating energy naturally before we can ever start pulling caffeine out, or coffee out. But, in general, I’m not a big fan of drinking coffee. I mean, I love it, myself, but I maybe have had like, four cups in the last three years, I just, you know, it’s not good to be, when it is your sole source of energy, you know, that with the sugar I call sugar, coffee is the cranky cousin of sugar, because they kind of do the same thing, just different mechanisms, and yeah, it’s not, not a big fan of sugar, or sorry, coffee. And I know there’s some research recently about like, oh, you know, there’s these great things in coffee, there might be great things in coffee, but I have to question what expense.
F: And how about tea in place of coffee? Do you feel like that’s a better option, or just ditch the caffeine as soon as you can all together?
L: It depends on the tea. I am, typically when I am having people wean themselves off of coffee, because again, we don’t want to go off cold-turkey, it is a situation where I’ll have them transition to green tea, because with that, while there is caffeine, it is weird, there is something different about the caffeine in green tea, that it tends to operate differently in the body, I think because there’s actually so many more antioxidants and flavanoids in green tea, that it does not have the same stress on the adrenal glands as coffee or black tea.
F: That’s interesting. And then, just quickly before we leave the topic of adrenal exhaustion, because I think a lot of people really struggle with adrenal fatigue and exhaustion, what are some of the top whole foods that you recommend people consume?
L: So, for adrenal exhaustion, actually a lot of the foods that are black in color, they’re, you know, colors are basically phytonutrients and other small compounds, and there is something in, and I don’t actually even know the name of it, but there is something in the pigment of black foods that is very nourishing to adrenals, so that would be black beans, or black rice, are typically two that are easiest to find. There can also be, there’s black radish, which has been known for centuries in China and Japan as very supportive of adrenal glands, so that’s one example. So…
F: That’s great.
L: Yeah.
F: Okay, so moving on to inflammation, that’s, like, a big buzz word these days, and it gets blamed for a lot of chronic health problems, so what do you talk about and what do you recommend people do to combat their inflammation?
L: Well, again, it’s not too different from the adrenal fatigue, it is a lot of, you know, getting to a whole foods diet, because particularly when people are already in a situation where there’s inflammation, that, you know, there’s things that we can shift out of the diet, crowd out of the diet, processed foods, things like that, so really for me, it’s about trying to get people to eat from the rainbow, and, you know, I think plants, you know, plants, greens, reds, you know, all, the whole rainbow, is where we really start to reduce inflammation. The other thing that I like to use is a lot of spices and herbs, very anti-inflammatory, so, if we can get people doing that, and staying really hydrated, we’re making great progress towards reducing inflammation, and by doing that, we begin to crowd out some of the stuff that is more inflammatory, like the sugars, the processed foods, even, you know, even excessive meat, I’m not, you know, I’m not necessarily, I don’t, I’m not a proponent of veganism, although I don’t eat a lot of meat myself, but it’s, you know, it’s certainly, I think we tend to overdo it, probably three times a day is probably too much, you know, the research seems to support that, and then also, there was something else that made me think, yeah, so, cutting back on the meat is really important and just, getting in more good stuff and staying hydrated. And the other part of combating inflammation is, of course, lifestyle. You know, stress is actually very inflammatory.
F: Isn’t that true. Yeah, and that’s such a huge area for folks too, figure out how to manage stress. And actually that’s a perfect segue because I do want to see if you have tips for people to manage their stress and inflammation around the holidays. Good time of year for this topic.
L: Yeah, exactly. Well, my thing is, is to slow down, and I know, you know, we hear that, I mean it’s like, okay, that was not useful, because we hear that, like, “Yeah, yeah right. Sure, you know, you don’t know my life, I’ve got, you know, twenty people to shop for,” and blah blah blah, you know, and all of that, and so, but, there is really some, you know, there’s some truth to it, is, we try to do too much, and you know, so, I think my you know, to make slowing down a little bit more practical is that we get in a very, this time of year, we get into a very doing mode, and we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that, and I think when in reality this is a time, and let’s just get away from like the cultural aspect of, you know, this should be a time of reflection, which is very true and we should be doing that, and that’s kind of our, you know, our cultural signal that we really should be slowing down, but there’s also what’s going on in our body, and our body is trying to prepare for hibernation in winter, and so when we are in that mode of trying to do everything, we are working counter to our natural internal clock. And, that’s why this is, we’re also moving into flu season because we are kind of pushing ourselves beyond what we should, and, you know, we’re not eating well and all of that, so it turns out that, yeah, we make ourselves very susceptible to getting sick. But I would, you know, work with your family. LIke, you know, if you’ve got twenty people on your Christmas list, like, okay, can we, like I love how creative big families get about, you know, let’s draw names so we’re not having, you know, we’re not having to have such a stressful holiday period. So, getting creative, I guess, ultimately I think the bottom line is getting creative in what your obligations really, truly are during the holiday period.
F: I like that a lot.
L: So, you know, and if you’ve got like a group of friends, and everyone is having a holiday party, it’s kind of like, okay, wait a minute, why are we, you know, double, tripling, quadrupling up on this, it’s like, why don’t we pick one person’s house, we have a party, and then the next year it goes to the next person’s house, so we’re not having to have twenty holiday parties to go to, we just, you know, have one, and it’s a potluck, or you know, whatever. But again, getting creative so things don’t feel so rushed, and you actually get to enjoy what the spirit of the holidays are all about.
F: I like those suggestions, those are really practical. And they’re doable, they’re slow down and here’s some simple ways to look at doing that. And, you know, I like how you talked about the body preparing for winter hibernation, and when we’re working against that rhythm, that’s when we’re putting ourselves at greater risk. Well said. So, let’s see, I wanted to also ask you about one of the things that you make a priority is movement, and you don’t necessarily talk about it in terms of exercise, because that’s such a loaded word for so many people, and so, just movement, and you like to make it fun and simple, and I love this because you and I align on so many areas and one of them is making movement fun and simple, so do you want to tell us more about that and what you recommend for movement?
L: Yeah, I mean, my recommendation is whatever you enjoy, then do that. And I think part of my philosophy around it not being exercise but being movement is I hate going to the gym, I always have and I’ve been through periods of my life where I forced myself to go to the gym everyday, and I’ve done it, but I don’t ultimately like it. So, you know, it just, it’s got to be fun, because if it’s not fun, you won’t do it, and it’s something that, you know, we have arms and legs, we are meant to move, and so, my thing is, is if it is, you know, dancing, you know, turning on your favorite playlist for ten minutes and just dancing around, that’s fine, that is exercise, that’s, you know, get your heart rate up, get yourself breathing a little heavy. It can also just be yoga, I had a client, she’s in my self-study program, and we had a conversation and she’s, you know, “You know, I’m having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning to exercise, like I really want to.” And I said, “Well, why don’t you do it while you’re in bed?” And she’s said, “What?” And, you know, the idea’s like, okay, you can stretch, get those joints moving, get that, you know, the synovial fluid in the joints, and get that moving, and do some stretching in the bed. ANd if that’s all you can do, just to kind of get started into the routine of moving your body every morning, every day, like, if you can’t do it when you get out of bed, then try to bring it into bed.
F: I love it, I love it. I’m just like, nodding my head, I wish you could see me. I mean, like, throughout this whole interview, I’m just nodding my head. And the whole thing is, I do that. In the morning, I actually do my yoga in bed, and I don’t even actually get out of bed as much as I used to for yoga, I just do it in bed, because I’m slow in the morning, I’m like a sloth, and I work with that rhythm, and I teach my students to do the same thing. You can do it in bed, going to bed or getting up in the morning. That’s just brilliant, thank you for sharing that.
L: You’re welcome.
F: And that, you know, kind of ties into self care. So you have this concept about radical self care, and I would love for you to share with us what that’s about, because it’s so important.
L: Yeah, this was a concept that I kind of created about, I would say, fairly early into my own journey, where I did, I was just, you know, it was for me such a radical idea to not stop setting my alarm clock in the morning, because I was always one who would, I would get in early because I had to show people I was, you know, hey, I’m like, contributing, and it was all about face time and all of that. And so, I made this real shift, like, pretty much over night, like, okay, I’m not setting my alarm, I’m going to do my yoga every morning, I’m going to have breakfast every morning, and I really, what I realized and what I was doing was I had put a line in the sand and said, “No more. I come first.” And, that’s a really radical concept, particularly for women. Is, we are the last ones on our to-do list, and radical self-care is about being the first one on our to-do list. And, so I literally like, during that time, when I was, you know, trying to figure out how to juggle all of this, and I still use this to a certain extent, is on my daily to-do list, is I had all my stuff that I had to do, but I also had this list of things that were for me, and they were, I actually like, I had them on a Post-it note, and I would just move it from day to day, and I would maybe pick one or two, but, it was like, that’s the, I’m the first priority. And, the reality is, and it’s a hard, like intellectually, we really resist this, but once you start doing it, what you come to realize, and what I came to realize is that, oh my gosh, when I’m taking care of myself first, and that is everything from diet to exercise to meditation to, you know, personal growth, all of that, when I’m doing those things for me, and making them non-negotiable in my day, then I’m actually more present for the things that I’m doing for other people. So, I became a better employee, I became a better wife, you know, and all of that kind of flowed from this concept of radical self care, which is really putting myself first, and being very conscious and intentional about what things I need in order to be well, and well in the whole physical and emotional and spiritual, actually, also.
F: I love that. I love that, and we really need that reminder, so, again, thank you for sharing that too. yeah, and so, you talk about there are three ingredients that are missing when we try to reenergize our lives, and, you know, get ahold of our stress, or when we’re trying to transform our bodies and our health, do you want to tell us what those three ingredients are?
L: Yeah, absolutely, I’d love too, because this is the kind of the core, this is really the core of my work, so it’s really, it’s a formula, and the first component is to fuel your body. And so that is the diet, and everybody kind of gets that, like, okay we know that, like need to eat better, need to exercise, all of that, and so, that is, I look at that, that’s the foundational piece, but what often I think, when we talk about wellness, the stuff that gets, it kind of gets left behind, or not as much emphasis, you know, because I think we do want something that’s just easy like, oh, if I eat kale, then I’ll be well, and, that’s not the whole picture. Really, the next piece is what I refer to as energizing your mind, and so, you know, that is everything from meditation, but it’s also that self-growth component, it is understanding yourself, and really it’s about self-love. So, you know, fueling your mind with better, more loving, more positive thoughts, and for some of us, and I, you know, I know I was this way, that was a really hard thing to do, I mean, I was very self-critical, and you know, suffered from the disease to please, I was all about pleasing everybody else, because that was how I was going to feel significant, and so, kind of shifting those belief systems like, I don’t need to please everybody else to be a significant, whole, healthy person. So there’s this, you know, kind of internal landscape that we also need to work on to have more energy. And, because, you know, I mean, I see clients, they come and they’re just, you know, “Life sucks!” Great, yeah, I can’t imagine why your fatigued if that is the way you’re going through life. Yeah, this makes sense, so really, you know, that’s the second component. And then the third component, or ingredient is to energize our purpose, and what I mean by that, and there’s kind of two components to that, one is what do you do with your life, what do you do with your day, and that, are you doing this, you know, is it the job, you know, is it being a mother, is it being a wife, are you doing something with your day that makes you want to get out of the bed in the morning. So that’s one part of purpose, and then I look at the other part of purpose as we are all here, you know, because our purpose is going to, it’s going to be different for me, it’s going to be different for you, it’s going to be different for all of us, we all have that different reason we are here on earth, but the one thing we all have in common, the one reason we are all here, is to love. And, so, getting in touch with that and owning that and being comfortable with that, and being comfortable with the discomfort that may come up with being a loving being is, I have found, incredibly potent and reenergizing and healing your life, whether, you know, it just be from, you know, too much stress, or it be from, you know, a chronic illness, that when we’re looking to transform our life, that purpose is critical.
F: Wow. That’s beautiful and I think, you know, just some people are going to probably have a rebuttal for that, that there isn’t, that they don’t have a choice, and they have to go to the job, and they have to please their boss or please their spouse or please their kids or whatever, and so, I’m sure you’ve encountered individuals who have that storyline, and feel a sense of struggle and disempowerment, as thought they might not really have a choice, and do you have anything that you might add to your advice for those folks?
L: Yeah, absolutely, and it was, and really I discovered this in my own experience, because I had, I mean I was in that place, I was in that place where I was in a job that I didn’t like, but I felt like I couldn’t leave it, you know, and I mean I had this whole, and it was a story, not that it wasn’t true, but it was just, you know, it’s part of it is we do get into this place where it’s like we get so closed down that we’re not open to possibilities around us. But for argument’s sake, let’s say, you know, I’m, you know, that is I can’t leave me job, and I don’t, I never suggest people leave there job, but what I suggest instead is if you have a job that you really don’t like, and you know it is not your purpose but you feel like you, it, whether now or in the future, it’s not time to leave, and you can’t leave, that if you really, if your energy around that job is sucking you dry, then maybe what we need to look at is how can you reframe your relationship to your work so it’s not an energy drain. So that’s kind of the one thing, and then, you know, also, in addition to that, is finding, is there something you can, else you can do, because, you know, we all need to pay the bills, and I totally get that, and one of the things that I had done is, you know, I was still working my day job when I took, you know, I decided, I’m taking pottery classes, and I’m going to make art, and it was like I totally dove into that, and so I found like, this purpose that I was, I was supposed to make art and I ended up sending it all around the world to people, and so that was my thing. I didn’t have to leave my job for it, I just, you know, I lived for the weekends because that was the thing that I got to do on the weekends, and that was my purpose, I mean, that was, you know, and purpose is a funny thing because it shifts over time, it totally does, it’s not stagnant, and I think that’s another important thing for people to understand, is that purpose can be anything, it can be just raising, like the most awesome kids, or it can be a hobby that you just totally get absorbed in, so it doesn’t have to necessarily be about what you do to bring money in the door.
F: I love that, that was brilliant. I think that’s going to help a lot of folks. Thank you .
L: You’re welcome
F: So, in your extensive work with clients and on the national scene in publications and so on, what are the biggest issues that you have seen people struggling with, and maybe if you could just distill it all down into just a few key problems, what would that be?
L: Well, I do think that, you know, everybody I come across really is fatigued, it doesn’t matter, you know, if they have a health issue or not, it’s about fatigue. And it, I think the associated issue that comes along with that is what I refer to as the attitude of magnitude, is that we we magnify whatever we’re going through and we make it bigger than us, we make it like this, you know, it kind of, you know, the mountain out of the mole hill, and oftentimes, you know, we will put ourselves in a situation where we feel like we don’t have options, when because we have magnified whatever issue we have to be just so big and so enormous that we can’t overcome it. And so, that is really you know, at the core, I think, of what I see a lot of, is just this magnifying things, and not breaking it down, which is one of the things I try to do in my work, is like, okay, let’s take, you know, how do eat an elephant? One bite at a time, you know, let’s take this one bite at a time and try to get out of that attitude of magnitude.
F: That is really cool, that one is going to stick in my brain. Attitude of magnitude. And you have a lot of systems that you’ve created which I think are really, really cool, so I’m just going to list them, and then ask if you just want to describe the essence and maybe you’ve already touched on a couple of them, but you’ve got the Get Up and Go system, the Radical Self-Care Roadmap, the Fatigued to Fabulous system, these are just so zippy titles. So, do you want to just tell us a little bit about them?
L: Yeah, sure. So, my Get Up and Go system is really the dietary component of my work, it is how we fuel our body, you know, it’s that first component, and it’s my system to take people through, step by step how you do it, again, you know, let’s eat the elephant one bit at a time, dietary change does not happen, should actually happen over night, it’s a step by step, and so, you know, I work, you know, the system really works on the idea of crowding out, and so that’s my Get Up and Go system. And then my Fatigued to Fabulous system, which was really the bigger system, is, part of it is the Get Up and Go system, this is the dietary part, but the Fatigued to Fabulous system is really working on all three of those key components, the fueling your body, fueling your mind, and fueling your purpose, and working through, and it’s really the system that I use coaching people one on one, working through all of those components, from you know, what we’re eating to how we’re taking care of ourselves, and that’s where the Radical Self Care Roadmap comes in, is learning, because I find when people are going through this whole process, that they’re having to learn how to put themselves first, and that brings up a lot of stuff for a lot of people, because it really is about self-love and, work with a lot of people who, it’s interesting, I have a lot of clients, who went, “Yeah, I know the diet piece, I just can’t do it for, you know, more than a week,” and it really comes down to just that lack of self-love, and so, the Fatigued to Fabulous system is about really getting in touch with who you are, and loving yourself so that you can put yourself first, and, you know, come to that, start working that Radical Self Care Roadmap.
F: And then, I forgot to mention the Super Sugar Shakedown, you did kind of mention that earlier.
L: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s just, it’s a nice little intro program because I do run into a lot of people who are lie, “Oh, I just, you know, sugar’s my issue,” and I’m like, “okay!” So, I built this, you know, just ten-day, easy to consume program and to help people kind of break, you know, break that habit, and you know, with menu plans and the whole bit, so it’s just an easy thing to go through, and just to start to, for me the purpose, everyone comes in going, “I’m going to get off sugar,” and they do, but I think the key is, what my intent with that program is for people to come out the other side aware of the effect food has on them, and aware of how good their body feels when they’re free of that addiction.
F: Yeah, it is powerful, too, once you realize, wow, sugar really effects me.
L: Yeah, exactly, so that’s kind of my intent with that program, and, you know, it’s, what happens is people get a sense of control again, they’re like, because they, you know, typically people are, they have this sense of, I just, I can’t control myself, and so this is a very structured system, menu plans, the whole bit, and by the end of ten days, they’re like, “Okay, I’m back in control again, that feels good.”
F: Yeah. Oh definitely, I know. And, for anyone who’s dealing with sugar addictions, I know I’ve battled with it back and forth throughout my life, learning how to get over it is so freeing. So, for those who are interested, do you want to tell us where we can find you and your free resources like your awesome, zippy newsletter, which I receive and I love it.
L: Aw, thank you. Yeah, it’s, so my website is chronic, just like, you know, we think of chronic illness, but it’s chronicwellnesscoaching, all one word, .com. And so, chronicwellnesscoaching.com, and for anyone that’s, you know, interested for more information, I have a free e-book that is called “Five Insider Tips for Eliminating Fatigue and Unleashing Your Inner Superhero”, so, and that talks more about the Fatigued to Fabulous system, as well as five great tips to get started on getting more energy, and, you know, working it so you’re really having, you know, a better life, and, because I think that’s what we all want, I mean, we all want more energy, but, and my thing is, one of the questions I always ask people is, why? Why do you want more energy and what are you going to do with it? And so, that’s what I invite people to ask themselves, is if you had more energy, what would you do with it, what could you do in your life that you’re not doing now?
F: Such a good question, and absolutely, that’s something I like to ask my clients as well, is why do you want this change, and that really just energizes their reasons for doing it, and their motivations for doing it. So Laurie, we’re coming up on time and I know you’re going to have to get going, so I’m going to open the floor for you, if there’s anything else you want to say at the very end, and just one second though, because first I want to compliment you, and say this for everybody who’s listening because you recently went through Hurricane Sandy, and we were actually going to do this podcast last week, but you had a big event, you know with Hurricane Sandy, your power went out, a tree fell down, and Iw as just impressed with how well you handled that stress, and how cheerful you were, and it just told me a lot about, you know, that you’re walking your talk, and it shows because you’re managing your stress and processing it quickly it seems, that was my impression, anyways. And so there’s something to be said about really leading a good lifestyle that promotes health because when stressors do come up, it doesn’t set you off over the edges, just, you handle it with more grace, and there’s a lot we could say about why, but I think that’s probably the most important thing to say for now.
L: Well thank you. Yeah, you know, it was, I mean, we were so lucky, compared to, you know, what happened in New Jersey, but, yeah, I think that is, you know the lesson that, you know, when we have that wake-up call and come out the other side stronger, we do, we become more resilient and let things really just slide off, it’s like, okay, you know, here’s another opportunity to grow. And I know, you know, I know what it would have been like to listen to me, you know, four years ago. I’d have been like, who is this, like, she’s just, I can’t do that, no, you don’t know my life, but, and I think that’s what I want to leave people with, is that, you know, if you are stressed, if you are overwhelmed, if you are fatigued, know that you, we all have the power to change, and no matter how overwhelming or impossible it seems, we all have that power, and, you know, take it from a former sugar, caffeine addicted, overweight, you know, stressed-out, former attorney that if I can do it, anybody can.
F: Well said. And your story is so inspiring too, so I hope that it speaks to a lot of listeners out there, and, you know, that they’ll take some control back for their own lives for, you know, managing fatigue, and just improving their health overall so that they’re not always at the crux of a, you know, stress breakdown, or, you know, breaking down the body, or breaking down the mind, or the emotions. And that really, we can feel a lot better than most of us do feel. So thank you for being an expert who would just share your wisdom and your insights with us today, and I know I took a huge page of notes, and so, I know I’ve learned a lot, and I’ll make sure that I include all the show notes for links to get back to you, for people who are interested, and thank you so much, again for joining us today, Laurie.
L: You’re welcome, thank you for having me!
F: My pleasure, and I hope you have a wonderful day.
